Reversible Encapsulation of Nanometer-Size Polyaniline and

Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India. Received February 17, 2004. In this paper we report a new me...
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Langmuir 2004, 20, 4733-4737

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Reversible Encapsulation of Nanometer-Size Polyaniline and Polyaniline-Au-Nanoparticle Composite in Starch Tridib Kumar Sarma and Arun Chattopadhyay* Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781039, India Received February 17, 2004 In this paper we report a new method of solubilization of polyaniline and polyaniline-Au-nanoparticle composite by encapsulating nanometer-size particles in starch. The solubilization was carried out in the presence of ultrasonic waves. We also report that the encapsulation was completely reversible and the dissolved polyaniline as well as the composite could be recovered by replacement with molecular iodine. In addition, the polymer particles could also replace molecular iodine from starch-iodine complex. UVVisible and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic measurements established the reversible nature of encapsulation. Transmission electron microscopic measurements showed that the sizes of the particles encapsulated in starch were on the order of 10-20 nm for both polyaniline and Au-nanoparticlepolyaniline composite particles. X-ray diffraction evidenced the presence of Au-nanoparticles in the starchpolyaniline-Au-nanoparticle composite. Finally, we also mention here that the dissolved polyaniline could also be recovered as a precipitate by enzyme (diastage) hydrolysis of the polyaniline encapsulating starch.

1. Introduction Polyaniline (PANI) is a model electrically conducting organic polymer with the potential of a multitude of applications, such as in batteries,1 microelectronics,2 displays,3 antistatic coatings,4 electromagnetic shielding materials,5 sensors,6 and actuators.7 In addition, its good environmental and thermal stability and the ability to have tunable conductivity by doping make PANI an ideal material for such applications. However, the applications remain below the potential due to its low solubility in most organic solvents and insolubility in water. The strategies that have been employed to make water-soluble PANI are the generation of sulfonated PANI,8 phosphonic acid-doped PANI,9 and enzymatic synthesis of PANI/ sulfonated polystyrene complex.10 On the other hand there * Corresponding author: e-mail [email protected]; fax (+91)361-2690762. (1) Kaneko, M.; Nakamura, H. J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. 1985, 346. (2) (a) Sirringhaus, H.; Tessler, N.; Friend, R. H. Science 1998, 280, 1741. (b) Burroughes, J. H. Nature 1990, 347, 539. (c) Wohlgenannt, M.; Tandon, K.; Mazumdar, S.; Ramsesha, S.; Vardeny, Z. V. Nature 2001, 409, 494. (d) Yu, G.; Gao, J.; Hummelen, J. C.; Wudl, F.; Heeger, A. J. Science 1995, 270, 1789. (e) Paul, E. W.; Ricco, A. J.; Wrighton, M. S. J. Phys. Chem. 1985, 89, 1441. (3) (a) Pages, H.; Topart, P.; Lemordant, D. Electrochim. Acta 2001, 46, 2137. (b) Kitani, A.; Yano, J.; Sasaki, K. J. Electroanal. Chem. 1986, 209, 227. (4) Duke, C. B.; Gibson, H. W. Kirth-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology; John Wiley: New York, 1982; Vol. 18, p 755. (5) (a) Koul, S.; Chandra, R.; Dhawan, S. K. Polymer 2000, 41, 9305. (b) Joo, J.; Lee, C. Y. J. Appl. Phys. 2000, 88, 513. (6) (a) Sukeerthi, S.; Contractor, A. Q. Anal. Chem. 1999, 71, 2231. (b) Xue, H.; Shen, Z.; Li, Y. Synth. Met. 2001, 124, 345. (c) Xie, D.; Jiang, Y.; Pan, W.; Li, D.; Wu, Z.; Li, Y. Sens. Actuators B 2002, 81, 158. (7) Wang, H.-L.; Gao, J.; Sansinena, J.-M.; McCarthy, P. Chem. Mater. 2002, 14, 2546. (8) (a) Yue, J.; Wang, Z. H.; Cromack, K. R.; Epstein, A. J.; MacDiarmid, A. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 2665. (b) Wei, X. L.; Wang, Z. H.; Long, S. M.; Bobeczko, C.; Epstein, A. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1996, 118, 2545. (c) Chan, H. S. O.; Neuendorf, A. J.; Ng, S. C.; Wong, P. M. L.; Young, D. J. Chem. Commun. 1998, 1327. (d) Chen, S.-A.; Hwang, G.-W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 10055. (9) Chan, H. S. O.; Ho, P. K. H.; Ng, S. C.; Tan, B. T. G.; Tan, K. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 8517. (10) (a) Liu, W.; Kumar, J.; Tripathy, S.; Senecal, K. J.; Samuelson, L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 71. (b) Liu, W.; Cholli, A. L.; Nagarajan, R.; Kumar, J.; Tripathy, S.; Bruno, F. F.; Samuelson, L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 11345.

are several other methods that have been adopted to facilitate application of PANI in various forms, such as water dispersion of PANI nanofibers,11 self-assembled PANI nanotube12 formation, polymerization of aniline inside macroporus carbon,13 rodlike inclusion complex formation of cyclodextrin and PANI,14 and direct assembly of large arrays of PANI nanowires.15 However, to realize the full potential of PANI, biocompatibility of the polymer is essential. This could possibly be achieved in the form of reversible complex formation with a biopolymer, where the complex would be soluble in water and PANI can be delivered under appropriate releasing condition. Ideally, the mechanical properties of PANI could also be improved by forming a complex with another polymer such as carbohydrates. For example, methylcellulose and polypyrrole composite16 has been synthesized with enhanced mechanical properties of the conducting polymer. Thus it is imperative that we search for methods of inclusion of PANI in biopolymers to harness the electrical conductivity of PANI and mechanical properties of the biopolymer. On a separate domain, there has been a growing interest in the generation of organic17 and inorganic18 supramolecular assemblies for encapsulation of guest molecules with intended application in solubilization,19 catalysis,20 controlled delivery,21 and growing materials with the structural motif of the host.22 Among the popular choices (11) Huang, J.; Virji, S.; Weiller, B. H.; Kaner, R. B. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 314. (12) Wei, Z.; Zhang, Z.; Wan, M. Langmuir 2002, 18, 917. (13) Lei, Z.; Zhang, H.; Ma, S.; Ke, Y.; Li, J.; Li, F. Chem. Commun. 2002, 676. (14) Yoshida, K.; Shimomura, T.; Ito, K.; Hayakawa, R. Langmuir 1999, 15, 910. (15) Liang, L.; Liu, J.; Windisch, C. F., Jr.; Exarhos, G. J.; Lin, Y. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 3665. (16) Bjorklund, R. B.; Liedberg, B. J. Chem. Soc., Chem. Commun. 1986, 1293. (17) For example, (a) Li, G.; Fudickar, W.; Skupin, M.; Klyszcz, A.; Draeger, C.; Lauer, M.; Fuhrhop, J. H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 1828. (b) Meier, W. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2000, 29, 295. (18) For example, (a) Yang, Z.; Niu, Z.; Lu, Y.; Hu, Z.; Han, C. C. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2003, 42, 1943. (b) Wang, W.; Asher, S. A. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 12528. (19) Fuhrhop, J.-H.; Koning, J. In Monographs in Supramolecular Chemistry; Molecular Assemblies and Membranes: The Synkinetic Approach; Stoddart, J. F., Ed.; Royal Society of Chemistry: London, 1994.

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in this regard are amphiphiles, which form threedimensional fluid structures such as micelles, vesicles, and helical structures of starch23 with controllable sizes in aiding the solubilization of hydrophobic molecules inside their hydrophobic core while the outer hydrophilic layer helps in getting dissolved in water. Cyclodextrins, an important class of carbohydrates, have been playing the role of host to a number of important chemical compounds and chemical reactions with their fixed sizes and shapes. The linear analogue starch offers a unique advantage in this regard. It is a biopolymer. It can form a helical structure with a hydrophobic core that can accommodate hydrophobic moieties while the molecule itself can be dissolved in water. In addition, amylose is known to form helical structures of variable pocket sizes according to the size of the host. This property has recently been utilized by Stoddart and co-workers in dissolving and purifying carbon nanotubes in water.24 In this paper, we introduce the idea and report the results of solubilization of PANI in water by encapsulation in starch. In addition, PANI-Au-nanoparticle (NP) composite, which we have recently synthesized,25 could also be encapsulated by the same method. We have reported there that PANI-Au-NP composite has significantly (at least 100-fold) higher electrical conductivity than the PANI alone when synthesized by our method. Further, composite, in general, represents a higher level of functional superiority compared to its constituents by themselves. Thus processibility of PANI-Au-NP composite is equally (if not more) important as the polymer itself. We have found that, like PANI, the PANI-Au-NP composite is also insoluble in water and typical organic solvents. Hence we have pursued the solubilization of PANI-Au-NP composite in starch in the present study. Here the encapsulation has been achieved by dissolving PANI as well as Aunanoparticle-PANI composite in aqueous solutions of starch with the help of an ultrasonicator bath. The additional advantage of the present method is that for encapsulation the starch molecules do not necessarily need preorganization by small molecules such as I2, thereby making the process simple and single-step. We also report that this encapsulation is completely reversible and both PANI and the composite could be recovered by introducing molecular iodine in the aqueous solution of either of them. In addition, we also show that PANI could also liberate I2 from starch-iodine complex while the polymer itself gets encapsulated inside starch. Further, hydrolyzing starch by an enzyme could also liberate PANI from starchPANI composite. Our observations suggest that PANI and the composite were dispersed in starch solution in the form of particles of average diameters on the order of 1020 nm. 2. Experimental Section 2.1. Preparation of Conducting Polyaniline. The greencolored emeraldine form of PANI was prepared by polymerization of aniline in acidic medium with H2O2 as oxidizing agent. Typically, to a solution of 1.25 × 10-2 M (∼1.5cmc) sodium dodecyl (20) Zhan, B. Z.; White, M. A.; Sham, T. K.; Pincock, J. A.; Doucet, R. J.; Ramana Rao, K. V.; Robertson, K. N.; Cameron, T. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 2195. (21) Kramer, M.; Stumbe, J. F.; Turk, H.; Krause, S.; Komp, A.; Delineau, L.; Prokhorova, S.; Kautz, H.; Haag, R. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 4252. (22) Sun, Y.; Xia, Y. Science 2002, 298, 2176. (23) Balasubramanian, D.; Raman, B.; Sundari, C. V. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 74. (24) Star, A.; Steuerman, D. W.; Heath, J. R.; Stoddart, J. F. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2002, 41, 2508. (25) Sarma, T. K.; Chowdhury, D.; Paul, A.; Chattopadhyay, A. Chem. Commun. 2002, 1048.

Sarma and Chattopadhyay sulfate (SDS) solution in Milli-Q water was added concentrated HCl, so that the final concentration of acid was 0.1 M and the final volume was 50 mL. The solution was constantly stirred to which 200 µL of freshly distilled aniline and 500 µL of 30% H2O2 were added. The green-colored PANI was obtained in about 12 h. PANI thus formed was cleaned by washing with distilled water several times. The excess surfactants were removed by washing PANI with methanol, followed by centrifugation and decantation in several cycles. The precipitate was dried in a vacuum. UVVisible and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic measurements were performed to confirm the formation of emeraldine PANI. In an earlier experiment25 we found that the average molecular weight of PANI synthesized by this method was 2500 (obtained from gel-permeation chromatographic data), and also four-probe conductivity measurement was performed to check the electrical conductivity of PANI and Au nanoparticleconducting polyaniline composite, which showed a 2 orders of magnitude increase in conductivity upon the incorporation of nanoparticles in the composite. 2.2. Solubilization of Polyaniline in Starch Solution and Further Precipitation by I2. Starch solution was prepared by dissolving 0.2 g of starch in 100 mL of boiling water. The solution was cooled to room temperature. To 20 mL of the starch solution was added 12 mg of PANI, and the mixture was then kept inside an ultrasonicator bath (ELMA, model Transonic 460/H, 35 kHz) for 20 min, upon which the solution turned green. On the other hand, we observed that PANI could not be dissolved in starch solution with stirring or leaving it overnight. It was further observed that a greater amount of PANI could be dissolved if more concentrated starch solution was used (saturated watersoluble starch concentration is 10 g L-1). To the PANI-containing starch solution was added 10 mg of iodine, and the mixture was kept overnight. The solution color turned blue, and green precipitate was obtained at the bottom of the vial. The blue solution was then decanted, and the green precipitate was washed with water. Chloroform (CHCl3, 2 mL) was then added to the precipitate, which was dispersed in aqueous solution and shaken properly to remove the excess iodine. The green precipitate was dried in a vacuum for further analysis. In a separate experiment, to the above amount of blue starchiodine solution was added 10 mg of PANI, and the mixture was kept in an ultrasonicator bath for 20 min. The blue solution then turned green, indicating the dissolution of PANI. CHCl3 (2 mL) was added to the solution, which was then shaken vigorously for mixing. The CHCl3 layer turned violet, indicating transfer of I2. The green aqueous layer was decanted and water of the solution was removed by vacuum-drying, and the green solid obtained was used for further analysis. 2.3. Preparation of Conducting Polyaniline-Au-Nanoparticle Composite. Conducting PANI-Au-NP composite was prepared with H2O2 as the oxidizing as well as reducing agent as reported earlier.25 To 50 mL of 2.5 × 10-2 M SDS solution was added HAuCl4 solution, so that the final concentration of HAuCl4 became 4 × 10-4 M. To that solution was added 500 µL of 30% H2O2 with constant stirring. Purple Au nanoparticles, with UVvis absorbance at 520 nm, were formed in 5 min. In another beaker 200 µL of aniline was dissolved in 50 mL of 0.2 M HCl solution. Both the solutions were mixed together and stirred for 12 h. The solution initially turned green and finally yielded a green precipitate while the parent solution turned colorless. The precipitate was first washed with Milli-Q water and then with methanol for several times to remove surfactant. After several cycles of centrifugation and decantation, the precipitate was airdried. The dissolution of the composite in starch solution was performed in the same way as for the PANI alone. The powder X-ray diffraction of the air-dried composite was performed on a MAC Science diffractometer (model MXPJVA) with Cu KR doublet (1.540 52 and 1.544 390 Å). 2.4. Enzyme Hydrolysis of Starch-Wrapped Polyaniline. Ten milligrams of the enzyme diastage (fungal) with amylase activity 1:2000 was dissolved in 5 mL of Milli-Q water. StarchPANI composite (3 mL) was put in a cuvette and to it 50 µL of the enzyme solution was added. The solution was then kept inside the sample compartment of a Hitachi U2001 UV-vis spectrophotometer. The absorption spectrum was monitored with time. When the solution turned colorless and a green precipitate was

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Figure 1. Photographs of (A) starch-solubilized PANI, (B) I2 in starch replacing PANI, and (C) PANI again in starch replacing I2. (A′, B′) UV-Vis absorption spectra of samples in panels A and B, respectively. (C′) UV-Vis absorption spectra of sample in panel C, (a) before and (b) after treatment of the solution by CHCl3. (A′′-C′′) Schematic representations of models of the processes in panels A-C, respectively. obtained, the recording was stopped. The precipitate was washed with water and then vacuum-dried and used for further analysis by FTIR spectroscopy.

3. Results and Discussion When PANI was dispersed in an aqueous solution of starch by ultrasonic irradiation, a green solution could be obtained that is characteristic of the conductive polyaniline. This is shown in Figure 1A. The UV-visible absorption spectrum of the solution with characteristic peaks at 800 and 440 nm, as shown in Figure 1A′, confirmed the presence of PANI (emeraldine form) in the solution. Upon addition of molecular iodine to the starchpolyaniline complex in the same ultrasonicator bath, the solution color turned blue (Figure 1B) with a peak at 600 nm, which is characteristic of starch-iodine complex (Figure 1B′). Thus upon exchange with I2 the absorption peaks due to PANI vanished and the peak due to starchI2 appeared instead. The green PANI particles precipitated out of the solution. Again when PANI was introduced in starch-I2 solution in the presence of ultrasonic waves, the characteristic green solution of PANI-starch with absorption maxima at 800 and 440 nm reappeared (Figure 1C,C′) and the blue color as well as the UV-visible peak due to starch-I2 had vanished. On the basis of the above observations, we propose that PANI particles were being encapsulated in much the same way as I2 is known to be encapsulated in starch. A model representation of reversible encapsulation of PANI as well as I2 in starch is shown in Figure 1, panels A′′, B′′, and C′′. It is important to note here that PANI could be dissolved in an aqueous solution of starch at ambient condition and this could also be achieved without having to go via initial structural motif formation of starch in the presence of small molecules such as I2. Ultrasonic waves probably serve two purposes

heresto disperse PANI particles into water and also to help dissolve the particles in starch, which could not be achieved by an ordinary stirrer. Another important aspect of the work reported here is the reversible binding of PANI and I2 to starch, which is evidenced by replacement of one by the other when one component is present in excess. Further, it is important to note here that during the exchange process of I2 and PANI there is no interaction between them, as is clear from the UV-visible absorption spectra of PANI shown in Figure 1, panels A′ and C′, which are identical. Moreover, excess I2 could also replace PANI in the absence of ultrasonic waves, indicating that PANIstarch composite probably forms with a helical structure of starch similar to that of starch-I2 complex. We mention here that similar results were obtained when the above experiments were repeated with PANI-Au-NP composite instead of PANI alone. From our previous work we know that the formation of PANI-Au-NP composite in water occurs with a green solution having characteristic absorbance of PANI at 440 and 800 nm. The absorption spectrum of Au-NP becomes too weak to be measured after addition of aniline leading to the formation of Au-NPPANI composite, and hence we do not show here the spectrum due to PANI-Au-NP-starch composite. However, the presence of Au nanoparticles in the composite was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction observations where the principal Bragg reflections of Au in the solidified composite were observed. An important point that needs to be addressed further here is whether, in the process of reversible replacement of PANI by I2, there is any reaction between them. In other words, did we recover unaltered PANI when replaced from the complex by I2? This is especially relevant with respect to small blue shift of the PANI peak when the

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Figure 2. UV-Visible spectra of (a) polyaniline and (b) polyaniline-iodine complex encapsulated in starch solution. The dotted line (c) is the polyaniline-iodine complex spectrum in starch solution after treatment with chloroform.

recovered PANI starch solution was treated with CHCl3 to remove possible excess iodine as shown in Figure 1C′, spectrum b. To answer this question we performed the following experiment. Solid PANI kept in a 10 mL beaker was placed inside an iodine chamber. The chamber was heated to 70 °C for 10 min. The setup was brought to room temperature, and PANI with I2 was dispersed in an aqueous solution of starch in the same way as other experiments. The UV-visible absorption spectrum of this dispersed solution and also that of starch-encapsulated PANI (alone) of the same batch of synthesized polymer were recorded. The UV-vis spectra are shown in Figure 2. As is clear from the figure, iodine-treated PANI in starch has a major peak at 538 nm (Figure 2b), which is very different from that of PANI in starch occurring at about 800 nm (Figure 2a) and that of starch-I2 complex with peak at 600 nm (Figure 1B′). Thus in our sequence of experiments, shown in Figure 1, we recovered PANI that did not react with I2 when being replaced. The small blue shifts of the peaks after treatment with CHCl3, as shown in Figures 1C′ (spectrum b) and 2c are probably due to incorporation of CHCl3 inside the starch cavity. This is quite plausible as the hydrophobic core of the helical starch moiety may incorporate CHCl3, the presence of which shifts the maximum of absorbance in both cases. It is also interesting to note here that CHCl3 did not precipitate out PANI from the PANI-starch composite. Further confirmation of recovery of unaltered PANI came from the FTIR studies as described here. When PANI was encapsulated in starch, the FTIR absorption spectrum occurred with dominant peaks due to starch (strong peaks at 3400, 1650, and 1025 cm-1; Figure 3b,c) with no clear peaks due to PANI. On the other hand, when PANI was recovered from starch and the FTIR spectrum of the recovered sample was recorded, clear peaks due to PANI could be observed at 1575, 1491, and 1133 cm-1 (Figure 3d). Again, only peaks characteristic of starch could be observed upon re-encapsulation (Figure 3e). In other words, spectra b, c, and e show peaks characteristics of starch, and even though PANI was encapsulated in starch, its characteristic peaks were not dominant over those of starch (Figure 3c,e) compared to those of starch only (Figure 3b). On the other hand, peaks characteristics of PANI could be observed in the spectrum of the recovered PANI (Figure 3, spectrum d as compared to spectrum a). Thus the above observations further confirmed that PANI could reversibly be encapsulated into starch and the recovered PANI from the starch solution was not a composite but the polymer alone. In an ultrasonicator bath, when solid PANI was dispersed into an aqueous solution of starch, the polymer was encapsulated into starch in the form of nearly spherical particles of average diameter 10-20 nm. This was revealed in the transmission electron microscopic (TEM) pictures of PANI-starch composite (Figure 4A). In addition, PANI-Au-NP composite was also dispersed

Figure 3. (A) FTIR spectra in KBr pellets of (a) PANI alone, (b) starch alone, (c) PANI encapsulated in starch, (d) PANI recovered from starch (I2 replacing PANI), and (e) PANI reencapsulated in starch from starch-I2 complex. (B) Spectra a-e from panel A, expanded in the range 1000-1800 cm-1 for clarity. Solid arrows indicate peaks characteristics of PANI and serrated arrows indicate peaks characteristics of starch.

into starch in the form of particles of similar sizes (Figure 4B). In both cases the distributed particle sizes were uniform and they were evenly distributed in the solution as can be seen from their TEM micrographs. The presence of Au-NPs in starch-encapsulated PANI-Au-NP composite was confirmed by observation of characteristic X-ray diffraction peaks, with all the three principal Bragg reflections due to [111], [200], and [220] planes at their corresponding 2θ values, as shown in Figure 4C. These observations suggest that polymer particles of nanometer size dimensions were dispersed into the solution, which were probably encapsulated in the hydrophobic core of starch. In principle, enzymatic hydrolysis of starch from starch-PANI composite should result in precipitation of PANI as the hydrophobic core structure in the composite, which possibly holds the polymer particle, would no longer exist. Our observation with enzyme hydrolysis of the starch-PANI composite supports this model. When starch-dissolved PANI was treated with enzyme diastage (fungal) we observed a green precipitate after 30 min of keeping the solution under ambient condition. The color of the solution and UV-visible absorption spectrum with time showed the green precipitate and disappearance of peaks of the solution at 440 and 800 nm occurring due to PANI (Figure 5). Further confirmation of precipitation of PANI upon enzyme hydrolysis was obtained from the FTIR spectrum of the precipitate (not shown here). In addition, this also shows that even though PANI incorporation in starch may result in a helical conformation of the moiety, it can still be hydrolyzed by an enzyme. We also point out here that, in addition to the helical structure of starch encapsulating PANI or the composite, there is the additional possibility of a large number of starch molecules making an assembly where the PANI is encapsulated by the assembly rather than a single helix. Finally, it is well-known that iodine is incorporated in aqueous starch in the form of a helical structure where alternate I2 and I3- units form a linear chain inside the helix.26 Also, diameters of I2 and I3- are much smaller

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Figure 5. UV-visible spectra representing the hydrolysis of starch by enzyme Diastage (fungal) leading to the recovery of polyaniline from starch-polyaniline composite, recorded (a) immediately after addition of enzyme and (b) after 30 min. (Inset) Photographs of vials containing the complex at the beginning (left) and 30 min after addition of enzyme (right).

such molecules would be liberated compared to the number of particles of PANI being incorporated inside starch. On the other hand, the reversibility of the process indicates that when iodine molecules replace PANI from starch, there must be a gain in enthalpy as there would be net loss of entropy. Thus while iodine replacement is entropically favored, PANI replacement must be energetically favored. This makes the process reversible. 4. Conclusion

Figure 4. (A) TEM of PANI dispersed in aqueous solution of starch (scale bar ) 100 nm). (B) TEM of PANI-Au nanoparticle composite in starch (scale bar ) 200 nm). (C) Powder XRD pattern recorded from solid polyaniline-Au-nanoparticle-starch composite. The principal Bragg reflections for the Au nanoparticles are identified.

than those of PANI particles that we have incorporated in starch. Thus when PANI particles replace iodine from starch there is a net entropy gain, as a large number of

In this paper we have been able to show that PANI and PANI-Au-NP composite could be dissolved in an aqueous solution of starch by use of ultrasonic waves or by use of the starch-I2 template with replacement of I2 by PANI in the presence of ultrasonic waves. The PANI and the composite were dissolved in the starch solution in the form of uniform particles with 10-20 nm diameters. Furthermore, it is also reported that PANI dissolved in starch could be recovered by replacement with molecular iodine in both the presence and absence of ultrasonic waves. In addition, the polymer particles could be recovered from the solution by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch. Acknowledgment. We thank CSIR (03/0979/03 EMR II) and DST (SR/S5/NM-68/2002) New Delhi for financial support, RSIC, Shillong for TEM studies, and Dr. Deepa Dey for help. T.K.S. thanks CSIR for a fellowship. LA0495884 (26) Teitelbaum, R. C.; Ruby, S. L.; Marks, T. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1978, 100, 3215.